Patricia Gray is an animal music researcher, working with all kinds of creatures (humans, whales, songbirds, bonobos, even coral reefs) to understand what functions pitch and rhythm have in animal communication, how the sound of our living planet is actually a symphony of hidden meaning, and how to improve our lives by embracing the innate musicality of our human brains.

• How she went from being a concert pianist to the chamber music director for the National Academy of Sciences to the piano-playing lead of a National Science Foundation-funded research lab;(http://www.wildmusic.org/research)

• How our understanding of animal communication has shifted over the last few decades from using human language to using music as the orienting metaphor;

• The evolution of (and scientific study of the evolution of) music-making in our species;